Irregular use of antibiotics has been known to cause an increase to antimicrobial resistance. Due to the fact that the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics continues and the amount of effective and available antibiotics reduces, the spread rate of infectious diseases will be increased. In addition to the antibiotic resistance, there are other adverse effects of antibiotics such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and skin allergies.
In some situations, antibiotics may be recommended as part of a prophylaxis regimen, so decreasing the amount of prescribed antibiotic in these situations can be helpful for avoiding the adverse effects of the antibiotics. One of the non-acute situations may be surgical antibiotic prophylaxis which accounts for about 30% to 50% of all prescribed antibiotics for preventing postoperative wound infections. One strategy for reducing the amount of administered antibiotic and related side effects can be the application of antibiotic-loaded patches as transdermal drug delivery system for treating infected or surgical areas locally.
Although transdermal patches have certain advantages like minimized drug metabolism in liver or gastrointestinal tract, they have several shortcomings such as low skin impermeability and low loading capacity for drugs with high required dose such as antibiotics. Accordingly, there is a need for a transdermal patch for antibiotic delivery with high loading capacity and high antimicrobial activity. Moreover, there is a need for an antibiotic-loaded transdermal patch with high loading capacity for antibiotics with 200 mg/day required dose and with high skin penetration for the antibiotics.